Bulldog women’s basketball defeats conference rivals Tigers in strong defensive game

Graduate student Kendal Brigham takes a three-point shot (photo from previous game).

Photo credit: Maddy Peters

By Cohen Carpenter

In a consequential battle of bitter conference rivals, the Bulldog women’s basketball team improved their postseason outlook with a 71-61 win over school rival the Doane University Tigers in Seward Wednesday night.

Although the final score might indicate a decently wide margin of victory for the home team, at no point did the game present itself as a blowout. In fact, those in attendance Wednesday night bore witness to 14 lead changes in a somewhat haphazard affair where both teams were hot and cold at times.

The key to the Tiger’s persistence was two-fold: Doane’s scrappy play style and sloppy Concordia mistakes. These mistakes were something coach Drew Olson drew attention to after the game.

“We had more than a few sloppy turnovers early on,” said Olson. “With that being said, just an awesome performance by our group to stick with it and to stick with our game plan.”

While Concordia finished the game with a 20 to 14 turnover advantage – that lead didn’t truly grow until the waning minutes of the match. In the first half, it was a struggle offensively for the Bulldogs, going just 4-19 from downtown and entering halftime tied at 37 with the Tigers.

Credit where credit is due however, much of Concordia’s early offensive woes could have been chalked up to good defensive looks by the Tigers.

“[Doane] are more cockroaches than Tigers,” said Olson with a smirk. “They’ve been a team that has done a great job all season of fighting and hanging around.”

While coach Olson might have been joking, the sentiment certainly rings true. The Bulldogs became fully immersed in the Doane experience January 8 when they eventually lost to the Tigers after two overtimes. In that first matchup, junior guard Mak Hatcliff dropped 39 points in a game where she shot 16 free throws and made 11 of her 19 field goals. This time around, Concordia was determined to contain the Great Plains Athletic Conference’s second leading scorer.

“We mixed it up on them defensively,” said Olson. “I thought we did an awesome job of containing Hatcliff. She’s a great player and we wanted to prevent her from getting layups and getting to the free throw line.”

Hatcliff went 2-9 from the field, seeing the charity stripe just seven times and only mustering 10 points – less than half of her season average.

For Concordia, rebounding has been an issue at times throughout the season – especially on the offensive side of the court. In all of the Bulldog’s worst losses this season, the rebound column has not been a friend to Concordia. To remedy this issue, coach Olson made great use of the team’s depth with every rostered Bulldog registering a minute Wednesday night.

With no Raelyn Kelty against the Tigers, Concordia’s usual starting forward, the production off the backboard was found elsewhere. Namely, sophomore Juliana Jones, who has rotated into the starting lineup at times this season, junior Kristen Vieselmeyer, a usual starter and freshman Makynna Robbins, who has been seeing more and more playing time as of late. As a trio, the three combined for 21 of the team’s 40 total rebounds.

“That’s effort. Rebounding is effort,” said Olson. “There’s anticipating and reading the ball, but it comes down to effort. Makynna is probably the biggest one. When she plays, we’re a pretty good rebounding team. She just does so many good things, she’s active and doesn’t give up on the play.”

Speaking of the freshman phenom, Robbins put up 10 points (good for second on the team behind Vieselmeyer’s 14), seven rebounds and an assist in a mere 14 minutes of work. Along with Robbins, the youngsters carried the load for the Bulldogs Wednesday night with sophomore Sammy Leu and the aforementioned Jones coming to play. The pair of sophomores combined for 18 points and 12 rebounds, both hitting timely shots down the stretch.

Going into the fourth quarter, Concordia was shooting 5-30 from three good for a percentage of 16 percent. However, in the game’s final frame, Concordia got things back on track after two huge threes: one courtesy of Leu the other by sophomore Bree Bunting. From that point onward, Concordia had a double-digit lead that they did not relinquish.

“We kept telling them, ‘Just play. Just shoot it and don’t worry about it,’” said Olson. “It was nice to see Sammy, Bree and AK [Abby Krieser] hit big shots there. Our mentality of ‘Don’t worry about it. If you’re open, shoot it and live with the results.’ – they did a great job of that today.”

Concordia now looks to end their regular season on a high note with their final game coming versus the Mount Marty Lancers in Yankton, South Dakota. Tip off for the Bulldogs’ 28th and final regular season game is Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.